Back on the Bandwagon

My mother pointed out last night that I hadn't blogged in awhile.  She's right.  It's been about a week.  But I told her that this is supposed to be a healthy living blog and it would really help if I had some healthy living to share.  Besides, I didn't want to torture you any further with talk about my job hunt or how awesome I am because I graduated.  I also didn't want to whine about the fact that I was sick all weekend, have been left with a residual cough for most of the week, and how it's rained here every day since Sunday.  No.  I don't think anyone really wants to hear about that.  So let's talk about things in my life that are healthy.

In case you have picked up on the hints in my last few posts, I've been busy.  I graduated, moved home, started back at my summer job full time, and am seeking permanent employment, which is my other full time job.  You can imagine that eating healthy and exercising have been put on the back burner.  Really, all these things are not excuses.  I know that I'm responsible for making choices, blah, blah, blah. 

Anyway, now that I'm settling back into a routine, I've made a conscious effort to get back on the bandwagon.  I'm still doing Weight Watchers and so I decided I needed to focus on one thing at a time.  This week I focused on staying within my points and making healthier food choices.  I weigh in tonight and I think it's going to pay off (I'll keep you posted).  I didn't want to overwhelm myself by trying to do that and workout a ton on top of.  Besides, with the cold I had, I thought it best to rest.

Last night I got out for my first workout in about two weeks.  My mom and I did a three mile walk around the neighborhood.  So my focus for this week is to exercise 3-4 times while still eating healthy.  Hopefully the weather cooperates a bit better this week so I can get outside!  Sunshine motivates me.  As does having my mom as a workout buddy.  We both do better when we're around each other because we push each other to go even when we don't really feel like it.  Plus it gives us time to chat.

I'll have some more interesting things to share in the next few days.  What have you been doing lately that's healthy?

Grrrr...

Today was supposed to be my weigh-in day for Weight Watchers.  Notice the use of the word supposed to.  I had been going on Thursday nights, but it was at an awkward time (6pm = dinner, not WW time) and I didn't really like the leader.  So as much as I hate to set an alarm on Saturday mornings to make it to the 9:15am meeting, I've been doing it because I like the leader better.

So this morning I got up at 8:15am.  Had a little breakfast and left at 8:40am.  I'm usually always running late on Saturday mornings, but I was determined not to stand in the huge line that forms ten minutes before the meeting.  So I drive the 15 minute drive to get there to find that they're closed.  Closed.  After all that.

Turns out that all the leaders are at some state WW convention.  They must have made an announcement about it last week, but last week I weighed-in in NH because we were home for the weekend.  I kind of feel like they could have made an announcement in the other weeks leading up to today, but oh well.  I'm just sort of aggravated that I didn't sleep in.  I'll do it tomorrow.

In the meantime, it's supposed to be over 50 degrees here in ME today and tomorrow.  Hooray!  I'm waiting to go for my run until it's a little warmer.  I'm also planning on checking out a new shop in town that only sells local goods.  What are you up to?

Body Image

I've been mulling over this post for awhile now.  I think it's an interesting topic, but I also don't want it to come out the wrong way.  So hopefully I get across the point I'm trying to make in a positive way.

As I have mentioned several times, I have rejoined Weight Watchers (I keep telling you so I can be accountable).  When I rejoined, I saw my highest weight ever.  Not the most amazing feeling, but I needed to accept it so I could move on.  I knew I was making doing the right thing by deciding to focus on being healthy.  This moment got me thinking about how my body image has changed over the years.

If you asked me if I think I struggled with my weight growing up, I would say yes.  I think my freshman year of high school was the point that I can recall feeling heavy and that I needed to do something about it.  I recognized that unlike many of my friends, I couldn't go to a birthday party and eat tons of chips and cake.  I knew that they weren't a healthy choice - which is something I am very grateful to learn about through the healthy choices my parents made.  However, my parent's struggle with weight was no secret so they made sure to teach my brother and I to make better choice than they did when they were young.  Here I am as a freshman in high school at about 150 pounds:

Retrospectively, I look pretty darn good!  But hindsight's 20/20 right?  Over the next few years, I started gaining weight.  I attribute some of this to the fact that my body was still changing and I wasn't quite done growing yet.  I continued to swim throughout high school, but swimming alone isn't the best way to keep weight off.  By the time I started college, I weighed around 175 pounds:

I knew college was dangerous for someone like me.  I tried hard to be conscious of what I was eating and I joined a sports club to try to stay in shape.  By the time I was a sophomore, I was up to about 190 pounds:

This is that point at which I decided I needed to buckle down and do something.  I joined Weight Watchers and set some goals.  My recent engagement and a goal to finish a triathlon motivated me to lose nearly 20 pounds, putting be back at the weight I started college at:

Even though I back to the same weight that I started college, I think I was in better shape than ever before.  My running was strong and I was happy with where I was.  I wish I had done a better job at maintaining that weight.  But my return to school in the fall was stressful.  Between my work load and planning a wedding, I lost focus of my health goals.  I was still doing ok until the wedding.  The wedding undeniably derailed me.  Sitting on the beach in Mexico at an all inclusive resort that week after the wedding didn't help things either.  I don't think I ever really recovered from that because the next thing you knew, my senior year was starting.  And it was the most stressful semester of my college career.  And now here I am:

I can't believe I'm even sharing this photo with you, but it's where I'm at right now.  When I recommitted, I weighed in at 207 pounds.  This is my effort at full disclosure.  I know I have a lot of work to do, but I know I'm on the right path.

I don't want my story to sound like excuses, because they aren't.  I let my health fall by the wayside, when it should have been my top priority.  But even though I'm heavier than before, I feel like I've come a long way in terms of my body image.  I think I felt a lot better about myself when I weighed 175 pounds for the second time.  Maybe it was because I worked so hard to get there or maybe it's just a case of your weight looks better going down than going up.

Sometimes I wish I hadn't been so hard on myself when I was so young.  I almost wonder how things would have been different if I hadn't put so much pressure on myself when I was young.  I was lucky in the sense that even though I didn't always feel great about my body, I was always confident and outgoing.  I never let my weight stop me from doing the things I wanted to do.  And I don't think that has changed.

It's hard to learn to love the skin you're in when you're not where you want to be.  But it's important to try because we are all worth it.  And this is especially worth it if you're on the right track and trying hard to make the right choices.

Three Things Thursday - Holiday Edition

1.  Merry (belated) Christmas and Happy New Year!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.  My blog has been hibernating for the holidays to spend time with my husband and our families.  We  had an awesome Christmas.  Santa brought me everything I wanted and my husband did the sweetest job filling my stocking and picking out a gift.  It really showed how thoughtful he is and how much he listens when I say that I like things.  I really am blessed!  The greatest gift was having Patrick in NH with me for five days and being able to relax and spend time together.  He is now safely back in ME while I continue working in NH.  I head back in another week or so.  What was the best gift you got?

2.  A Little Confession:  I am back with Weight Watchers.  My mother graciously gave me WW for Christmas.  For a year.  I'm really happy to be back because the past few months I have been eating crap and not working out.  While my schedule really was busy, I've made a lot of excuses and it's time to buckle down.  Personally, I need the accountability of something like WW to keep me on track.  I'm still adjusting to their new plan and with the holidays, I have not lost anything yet, but I'm looking forward to figuring out their new plan and sticking to it.

3.  This weekend I'm headed to Meredith, NH to spend New Year's with one of my friends.  We used to take turns visiting each other and spending the weekend, but this sort of began to fall by the wayside with our work schedules and my wedding.  I'm very excited to get away for a girls weekend.  My friend is really into making jewelry and so inevitably we spend the weekend crafting.  I love coming home with something new to wear!  I'll be sure to post pictures if we make anything.  However, I want to try to convince her to go to the outlets as well!  What are your plans for New Years Eve?

Stay tuned for my Year in Review Post!

How I've Been Feeling Lately

I think this comic sums it up:

Operation: Fit Into Wedding Dress!

Well, we're officially less than four months away from our wedding.  I'm still rather calm about the whole thing, except maybe my dress.  It's due to come in next month, but I won't get to try it on until I'm home from Maine at the beginning of Maine.  I'm nervous about it fitting.  What bride isn't nervous about that?  In particular, I know I'm up a couple of pounds since I ordered it (dang holidays!).  So I have begun Operation: Fit Into Wedding Dress.

I was really good last week.  I exercised every day and stayed on track with the eating.  And what did the scale say?  I lost nothing.  At all.  And if we want to get technical about it, it says that I'm up 0.2 lbs.  Clearly, I'm not doing enough.  So here are my goals for this week:

• Workout 6 days
• Step up the intensity of my workouts
• Eat at least 3 servings of fruits and veggies a day

I just have to get myself focused and on track.  Having my wedding dress fit is certainly good motivation.  I also need some accountability, which is why I'm posting here.  What kinds of things do you do to stay motivated?  How do you stay accountable?  Any other words of wisdom?

Recommiting

I've been such a slacker lately it's not even funny. And the worst part is that I'm going to have to stop doing Weight Watchers because I my mom's isn't going to reimburse us for it like they're supposed to (so aggravating!). That means that I'm going to have to be super careful and keep myself on track. I'll probably need to buy my own scale, but I digress.

The moral of the story is that I'm recommitting. Right now. No more cheating. I'm also going to restart the 30 Day Shred routine. That way, even if I do have nothing else, I've done at least 20 minutes of working out. And this time, I took initial measurements so I can see the results. And I'm going to post them right here so I can be accountable. So the starting stats are:

Waist: 34 in
Hips: 41 in
Bust: 38.5 in
Arms: 11.5 in
Thighs: 22 in

I did Day 1 Level 1 today and it was definitely much easier than when I started the first time around. I think tomorrow I'm going to use my 5 pound weights instead of my 3s. This is also a good choice because I generally get lots of cardio in, but not a lot of weights or strength training, something I desperately need. Stay tuned for progress!

Ups and Downs

So I managed to get my butt out there last week and I ran almost the entire 6 miles. It took my 1:06. Considering I walked about 6 minutes of the run, I felt that I didn't do too bad at all. My knee, however, felt otherwise. I may or may not have done bad things to my knee on this run. I've run since then and it seems to be alright, but I think I need to be careful. Tonight was supposed to be another 6 miler, but I'm postponing that one and did a yoga class instead. It really helps stretch everything out!

Now that we've finished the first two weeks of classes, we're starting to settle into our routine. It's been hard to keep up the healthy eating because I spend so much time just hanging around the apartment. It makes it so tempting to eat all the time! My first weekend up here I went to Weight Watchers and had gained 4.5 pounds! Yikes! I'm back on track and thankfully heading back the other way. Since this is really the first time where I've lived on my own and had to do all the grocery shopping and all the cooking, it's been a real learning experience. I think I'm getting the hang of it though. I'll put up some pictures of the apartment in the next post!

Attitude

First, I would like to thank the weather gods for listening and giving me a beautiful sunny day. My dad and I were able to go for a 3.8 mile run this morning in the sunshine. It was a bit humid, but I really didn't mind. Besides, a good sweat never hurt anyone.

Throughout this training process I have also been trying to lose weight and I have been quite successful thus far. I've been doing Weight Watchers for 13 weeks now and I've been really happy with the progress I've made, as well as the changes I have made in my lifestyle. I am not only eating better, but I'm exercising more, I feel better, and I'm in an overall better mood.

At last week's meeting, I realized that how you approach weight loss, or anything in life, for that matter, really depends on your attitude. The way I look at it, any loss is a good loss, and if I'm up a bit, no big deal. I'll try harder next week. Generally, I try to stay as positive as I can about this whole thing. A newer member at my meeting had her first meeting two weeks ago and complained about how hungry she was through her first week. All of the rest of the members were trying to give her ideas and suggestions on how to stay full while on this plan. For the record, it is very rare that I feel famished and have no points left. Most of the time I am quite satisfied, and I still go out to eat and I still eat frozen yogurt. Anyway, this week she was grumbling about how she thinks she would never be able to make it to goal weight and she was grunting at every breakfast suggestion we were making. I'm giving this women two more weeks max before she's gone. Her poor attitude leads her to be miserable. It took everything in me to not turn around and tell her to be quiet.

Sorry to be so long winded, but I think we tend to forget how to stay positive. And when we're negative, we are really just sabotaging ourselves. So stay positive!