Two steps forward, one step back

I know I havent posted lately and that is because I really didnt know what to say. After I posted a few weeks ago about losing 6 pounds, I ended up weighing myself a week later and it showed that I hadnt lost ANYTHING after all...SOOOO Annoying! I am not sure why it showed I had lost so much on that day (was I dehydrated?) but I do know that I have weighed myself several times since then and it definitely shows I didnt loose that much.

Truthfully, for a couple of weeks I got really negative about the whole thing and it put me in an all-around bad mood. However, this week I have felt a lot better. I am really trying to focus on all the REALLY GREAT CHANGES I HAVE MADE IN MY LIFE THE LAST TWO MONTHS!!! I have decided to try to not weigh myself all that much for the next little while. Instead, I plan to focus of continuing to make positive changes and be the most healthy I can possibly be. I actually, truly think my body "wants" to be at this weight (unfortunately). I had lost about 20 lbs of baby weight over the last year and now my body want to stay here. I think the fact that I am still nursing my baby (at night) makes my body even more certain that it needs a little "padding" so it can be able to feed the baby just in case of famine! (I know some of you think that nursing should make it even easier to loose weight but unfortunately that is not how my body works..I have had four babies and my hormones affect me in a way that makes me want to hold on to the flab! UUUGGGG! :)

So, even though the scale doesnt want to budge...here are a few thing I have to be proud of:

• I have been consistently exercising 5 days a week (and I have been pushing myself hard too...some of my new favorites are the 30 Day Shred DVD and the Strength and Endurance Training classes at my gym
• I have been consistently journaling my food and I have focused on increasing my "healthy" food while lowering my overall calorie intake. I have also stopped snacking at night (for the most part anyway! :)
• I have been setting a good example for my kids
• I have increased my water intake
• I have noticed a change in my body and my clothes are fitting MUCH better (even though the scale isnt moving! )

So, for now, I am ignoring the scale! And, I am done feeling sorry for myself!

Oh, and, here are a couple of articles I found helpful during my pitty party! Maybe they can help someone else too! http://www.jillianmichaels.com/fitness-and-diet-tips/scale-not-telling-you
and http://www.jillianmichaels.com/fitness-and-diet-tips/endocrine-disruptors

Crock Pot Recipes

I'm diggin' these diet crock pot recipes:
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/01/crockpot-diet.html

About Freakin Time

I FINALLY saw the scale move when I weighed myself today. I hadnt weighed myself in a couple of weeks because I was so sick of seeing no difference even though I was really trying. However, I knew I couldnt avoid it forever so I thought I might as well weigh myself today before the weekend hits!
And......I had lost six pounds!!!!! YAY! I am not only 1/2 pound away from where I was in June when I had just finished six month of boot camp class (and before spending all summer on vacation!)
I am still trying to hit the gym every weekday morning and now I am now tracking my food on www.myfitnesspal.com I think journaling my food has added that little extra bit that finally made something happen. So, now I am off the enjoy my weekend (and not worry about what I eat again till Monday!)

Good Signs

I am thinking that the stars must be aligning for me to loose weight or something because all of a sudden I am seeing stuff all over about weight loss (or maybe I am just paying more attention to it now!)

I follow quite a few deal blogs and a few of them are having a 30 day shred-a-thon. You can read more about it Here. I did order the 30 day shred video from amazon(I used one of my $5 swagbucks amazon cards so I got it for only $3!) and I cant wait to try it. I will still be going to gym most of the time (since I am paying for it and they have daycare) but I think it will be good for the days I cant make it to the gym.

Oh, and one other thing I decided to sign up for was the "cat's 500 fitness challenge". You can see the button on the side. This is a blogger who lost 100 lbs last year. My friend did her summer challenge where everyone tried to walk 120 miles over the summer and I was impressed with her results. So, I signed up for the fall challenge. It goes till the end of the year and basically you just try to earn points by doing healthy things and if you get to 500 points by the end of the year then you are entered to win prizes. Pretty simple but just one more thing that will HOPEFULLY give me some accountability.

Ready or Not!

So I had some unfinished business that I felt I needed to get control of before I really started my weight loss journey. #1 on the list get everyone in our house sleeping in their own bed. For the most part #1 is accomplished. Honestly, I had a whole list of other things that I felt had to be done before I could really focus on me. But really, its time! I have got to lose some weight whether or not my walls are clean, or I have a month of dinners planned, or my kids have and are doing chore charts, etc. So here we go.

My plan is using this www.metabolicreset.com & this www.myfitnesspal.com I actually really like the protein shakes, they are very filling and I am hoping I will come to like the online tracking tool. Merri says it is like facebook for fatties. That sounds like something I can totally get on board with!

So after a big grocery trip today (I'm sorry but it is a lie that it is cheaper to eat healthier, it is totally cheaper to buy a package of hot dogs and buns than turkey burger and fresh produce!) I am stocked up on healthy foods and ready to go. Tonight I plan on informing my husband that I need one hour a day to MYSELF to exercise.

MY GOAL: Honestly, my goal at first it to just do it. I usually make the mistake of setting some huge weight loss goal and then get super discouraged when I don't meet it. So I'm not even going to weigh myself for the next two weeks all that matters is that I stick to my caloric intake and exercise, that it. So here I go, wish my luck!

Journaling

I am really liking the food/exercise tracker on MyFitnessPal. It has been working really well for me so far (for the three whole days I have been using it!)

I really like that it's A) easy & B) free. I also really like that it spells out exactly how much of everything I need to eat shows me EXACTLY when I have eaten too much! I think it works really well for me too since it's on-line (it's kinda like facebook for fatties...stuff like that really clicks for me since I am kinda addicted to things like facebook and blogs right now....I know that you couldn't tell that since I am currently an author on no less than THREE different blogs right now!) I guess we will see the next time weight myself if it translates into an actual difference in weight.

For anyone who likes the good ol' pen and paper journal I found this one at Quaker. It looked pretty good (I found it on Quaker's facebook page. If you go there you can sign up to win a chance to meet Bob Harper from The Biggest Looser....but DON'T do it...I have already entered and I don't want any more competition...Bob is mine!)

Oh, and one last thing...remember how in the last post I talked about how the trainer at the gym said I wasn't getting enough protein...Well, according to the MyFitnessPal she was right. On my first day, I decided to try to up my protein. I tried so hard in fact, that for lunch all I had was 1/2 a dozen hard boiled eggs (ok, in hind sight, maybe not the healthiest choice but I really wanted to increase my protein....next time I will put them on a salad or something to make it slightly more of a balanced meal). However, even after eating all those eggs for lunch, I still was short on my protein for the day. So, there you go, something else for me to work on. MORE MEAT!

One Month In.....

Well, I started this blog one month ago....and how much have I lost.....drum roll please.....NOTHING. NOPE. NADA.

I gained a pound and a half a few weeks ago and so far, I am holding tight onto it. Sad. (speaking of sad, pathetic things, did you know that when you weight yourself on the Wii Fit, if you have gained weight, and you dont want it to show that you have gained {thereby making your mii a little fatter}, you can turn the Wii off and it wont register the gain.? I did.)

Anyway, back to the flab at hand. So, I am not going to give up (yet anyway). I feel like I have gotten my exercise in a good place. I have a friend who meet almost every weekday mornings at the gym and we do the 9:15 am class (and even on Monday morning when Yoga is the 9:15 class, I still stay and run a couple of miles on the treadmill after Yoga). So I am feeling good about my exercise. It's my food that I have to be better at. I was talking to the teacher at the gym today and she it said it sounds like I need to eat way more lean protein (AKA...less junk). From what she said, it sounds like I am not eating too much...just not the right stuff (once again, AKA...less junk). So my friend says she tracks her food on http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ and it will track how much protein, etc you get. So I am going to sign up today and see if it makes a difference. Hopefully I can get the numbers going in right direction (and I wont have to stop turning the wii off after weighing myself!)