Unsolicitated Advice

I have hit a point in my weight loss where I am being barraged with advice. I am sure that most of it is from people who love me. I am also convinced that they are not educated on the process that I am going through.
Comments such as "You look good now but if you keep losing weight you will look like a crack head" ,"Don't get too skinny" , " Ooh you have lost enough weight", " Why are you still working out?", " Do you eat, you cant be on a diet forever"   and the infamous " You know men like a woman with some meat their bones".

Now I have been a big girl my entire life. No one told me when I was fat and that I needed to lose weight. Now that I am on a journey to be healthy they have a lot to say. I understand that people may mean well but if you are a friend or family member of a person a weight loss journey. You need to know those are  horrible things to say to a person.  If you are eating right and exercising  there is no way you will end up looking like  a"Crack Head".  "Crack Heads don't eat, they take drugs and do horrendous things to their bodies.

In reality if a person has been over weight their entire life , when they lose weight they will look different. In time you will get used to their new look and it wont be so shocking.  Right now I look fabulous with clothes on but my goal it to look good naked. My husband brought me back a bikini from Miami and I plan to model it for him on the beach. Looking fabulous in it!!!

All jokes aside, someone who is on the verge of loosing their willpower might be affected by those comments. So if you have someone in your life going through a weight loss journey be supportive.  Positivity is the best support because this is not an easy journey!!!

The Kindness of Strangers

As many of you know we have been dealing with record heat here in the North East. I am still running in the morning with a water bottle strapped to my hip. I don't know if you remember my post a while back about how I scout out my routes. Like looking for mom with small children and introducing my self to regulars I see.   Well, you never know who is watching you.

When I run early in the morning I always see a nice elderly lady on her porch drinking coffee and rocking in her chair. I always wave at her and say "Hi", she always yells "Keep up the good work!." Recently as I turned on her corner, I circle her block twice. I reached for my water bottle to find it empty , disappointed with my self, I said whatever and kept running.  As I circled her block for the second time, she was standing at the corner with a ice cold bottle of water. She passed it off to me and said " Keep Going!".  I thanked her and kept in stride because that is what she told me to do.   

What a wonderful person , who with out a thought decided to help a stranger. Today I dropped a plant off on her porch with a card that said" Keep Going". Someone you don't even know is pulling for you to succeed on your journey. So KEEP GOING!!! 

Rain Rain Go Away!!!!!!!!

The rain is really messing up my workout plans lately! So I had to make some decision, I mean am I going to let the rain stop me from hitting the pavement. Since we are going on week two of constant rain, the answer had to be NO. I  have dodged the torrential downpours so far but I knew my luck would run out.

So today  I packed my poncho and after work today, I headed out for my run. Half way through my route, it started to rain and I pulled out my poncho.  It actually was not that  bad, the rain cooled me down and I felt my stride increase.  I made in home in record time, in fact as I turned the corner on my street the rain stopped.  I of course had to wash and blow dry my hair but that  was not a real issue since I am natural.

I am very proud o f myself for removing a roadblock, getting of the couch is getting easier each day.

Small victories

 I have a list of small victories that I want to share:

1. I broke into the 170"s 

2.  I ran 3 miles in 29 minutes today

3. I went 7 days without chocolate

4. My dress size is officially a 10

5. I can do 35 push up without stopping

6. I have only 2 processed food product in my pantry, so my pantry 97% clean

7. In the past 6 months I've ran 678miles

Some people might look at this list and think these things are insignificant. To me they are my small victories and every victory counts!!!  Sometimes I get so caught in my overall goal that I forget to celebrate the small victories. This week I made a conscious decision to look at some of the immediate accomplishments I have made. So if you haven't done so today CELEBRATE!!!!

Reving up for summer

I am so in love with the sunshine!!! With gas prices so high I really  had to put getting fit in perspective. The most basic tools you can use are your legs. My job is a few miles from my home, by car it takes me literally 10 minutes to get to work.  I decided that I would run home from work 2 days a week. I started this venture about two weeks ago. The first day I did a combination of walking and running, I think more so because I needed to scope out my surroundings.

The first time I take a new route, I feel it is necessary to scope out your surroundings for safety. Look at the buildings and residences in the area.  I make myself  aware of the people that are hanging around on a regular basis. In fact I always make sure to look out for mom's with children that I see on a regular basis. I make it a point to speak to them regularly. Mothers are very observant , even more so when they are outside with their children. In the event that you are ever in trouble that will be the person to remember you and what  happened .

The next thing I pay attention to  are the small business's in the area and what time they open and close. Most small business's have loyal customers and maintain consistent hours and employees. I make it a point to stop in and patronize one of them to make myself familiar with owner and so that have another safe zone. Finally I scope out the terrain and the traffic pattern. 

I  have cut my commute home down to 30 minutes and it is actually refreshing to  burn off all the stress of work  before I get home.  Did I tell you all that I am doing P90X, I will be completing my first 90 days in the second week of june. I will post my results then, Thanks again for all your support and encouragement!!!!

Crunching Numbers

I got a few e-mails from folks asking me how I decided my goal weight.  They  are saying that looking at my pictures I should be at goal. Well pictures don't tell the whole story, in fact there are a few factor that I considered when I determined my goal weight.

     1. BMI:   Body Mass Index which  is a number calculated from  my weight  divided by the square of my  height.  It provides a good indication of body fatness.  I know that  the BMI formula depends only upon weight and height, its assumptions about the distribution between lean mass and adipose tissue are not always exact.  But I have a  lot of  fatty tissues so I am unlikely to overestimates  body fat  unlike those with more lean body tissue. My goal is to be in the normal range of 18.5 -25.

2.  WAIST: Waist Circumference above 35( in women)  is associated with an increased risk for type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease when your BMI is between 25 and 34.9. To determine my waist circumference, I located my  upper hip bone and placed a measuring tape around my abdomen .I made sure that  not to push in my skin, then  took a breathe and measured my waist. .  I don't have  specific goal in mind just to be below 35.

 

3. LEGS: I want my legs to be muscular and shapely. So until they look the  way I want I will keep pushing forward. I carried a lot of my weight in my legs , so I need to burn that fat stored there.  See my leg idol on the right ----------------->

So I still have a few months to go in my journey and  if I have not complete my goals by July 20, 2011 I will keep going. In fact I will never stop this pursuit because this is a lifestyle change, nothing about this is temporary.

New Phase.

   So a friend completed a side by side photo of me and as you can see there is a huge difference. I am so pleased that all my hard work is visible to the world!!!!!!  When I look at these pictures both of which shock me. I am convinced that I made the right decision, when I decided to change my life. 

What a difference eight months make!! I have about three months left until my goal day and I am going through yet another transition. I have had to walk a fine line when it came to nutrition because I  have been exclusively breast feeding my son. He has a huge appetite and I  have  been eating an additional five hundred calories a day.  I made the personal decision to wean him and as of Thursday I will no longer need those  additional calories.

So I had to sit down and see where I was getting those calories from. I realized that I would add unnecessary snacks into my day to fill the gap.  Looking at my daily journals, I realized that it wont be that difficult to reduce my caloric intake. I am however  giving my self a week to adjust, I am reducing my calories daily instead of drastically. So a hundred a day until I am on a normal diet. 

So instead of ten  mini meals a day, I will go to six mini meals a day in a four day span. I did consult my doctor about reducing my caloric intake. She reminded me that my activity level is very high. So if I get hungry, I should  drink water first to see if it is thirst. If I am still hungry ten minutes later then I need to eat something  high in protein. Something that I did not think of and I love my doctor because through out this journey she has personally handled all of my phone calls. On a side note you too should be contacting your physician if you are starting any diet or excercise  program.