Saturday Morning Health Check in

Good morning! I am getting back into the routine of doing a Saturday morning reflection and goal setting for my health. I weigh in on my Weight Watchers online every Saturday morning, so this is always a good time to reflect on what is going on with me.

This morning I had a slight increase in my weight with the weight-in again. I decided to pull up my statistics on Weight Watchers to see where I was with my Weight on January first compared to now. I am two pounds lighter today then I was on January 1st. I really have been bouncing up and down in the same five pound spot for the last 5 months. It was good to see. I can't really fool myself when I see the chart right in front of me. I have been working out a lot and I am seeing changes in my size and shape, but the weight loss has really dried up in the last five months.

So I am back to tracking my food and measuring it out accurately. I am going to spend some time looking at the recipes on WW online to try and find something exciting. I got out of the pattern of trying a recipe every week and have been way to dependent on sandwiches and box meals. This week I will get back in the rhythm of tracking my food. I feel like that is where I am going astray since I have never stopped working out and pushing myself that way. The good news is that I held a pretty good maintenance schedule over the last five months - so I know when I get my weight to a level where I am comfortable I can hold myself there with comfort. BUT I am not in maintenance mode yet - I still need to get my weight down.

The level of joint pain I have now compared to last summer is so much less with the weight loss I have already achieved. As I march proudly into my 40's I really want to get as much of my bulk off as I can so I don't spend my 60's and 70's having knee surgery and unable to garden or ride a bike. I am proud of what I have achieved but I still have distance to cover. I still have swollen knees that ache and I get excited thinking about what my energy level and my ache level will be like when I drop xx amount of more weight.

And no - I don't have an end number in my mind. I have an area I would like to get toward - but I want to see how I feel when I get to certain levels of health. I know for my height I need to get my weight down AT LEAST another 20 pounds to enter the "normal" range on the BMI scale, sothat is where my path is taking me right now. I would also love it if my Wii Fit didn't say "That's Overweight" after every weight in. (After years of it telling me "That's Obese" it doesn't seem as bad, but still - I want it to say something nice!)

So that's where I am at!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2012! WOOT! I have decided (and therefore it shall be so) that 2012 will be an awesome and wonderful year. Boom. I said it. I am putting it out there. I said it out loud AND typed it in my blog - so it's in Real Life AND virtual.

My goals for 2012:
 - I want to continue surprising myself with how healthy and fit I feel. I want to surpass my expectations.
 - I want to ride my bike this spring/summer/fall and have a taste of what it was like as a child and not this horrible thing it has become as an adult - A very sore butt and a lesson in how old and out of shape I am.
- I want to resolve some health issues. (Personal crap.)
- I want to knit my first sweater for me! (Only one sweater knit so far - it was for a baby and the recipients were ungrateful bastards.... boo. I need sweater gratification!)
 - I want to continue working on mending my soul.
 - Job?!?! Issues galore. Work. It. Out.

AND I want to continue to reduce what I own and go from being a little in debt to being the queen of saving.

Is that too much to ask?!?! I think not. Go baby go!

Happy New Year all who read this. I wish you good fortune, good health and good fiber. May at least one of your dreams come true this year. Make it so!

XOXO

Saturday Morning - Health update and goal setting

Saturday morning weight in and health evaluation time. I like to take time to think about the week ahead on Saturday mornings and how I can make it a better week. What can I do to be stronger and healthier? What are my concerns?

This last week was a struggle with food. I didn't go crazy - but I felt a little out of control. The voice of justification (It's ok - eat a cookie!) was in my head too much and usually that means other things are going on that make me feel like I need extra. Extra love, extra food, Extra stuff to fill the holes in my soul. I try to be mindful of that voice - it's a trickster and will lead me astray.

So I did the "Please let me not have gained" prayer as I stepped on my Wii this morning and was happy that I saw a little loss. Not even a pound, but it's the right direction and I consider that a win.

I have noticed my Zumba workouts aren't destroying me as much anymore, so I want to step up the workouts. Either the intensity of the short work-outs (Since I am on beginner) or trying the 40 minute work outs. I am not sure what makes sense to do yet - but I need to change something there.

I only have three more work outs to go on my 2nd tread-mill afghan and then I can be done knitting on my treadmill. I have been wanting that to be harder too, and I just can't go too fast while knitting. Visions of being impaled on my pretty hard wood knitting needles fill my head. No thank you! I have the incline at 50% and walk for an hour every time. It's enough that I drip with sweat every work out - but I am to the point that I really want to work harder.

I REALLY need to finish putting together my first tread mill afghan. I pretty much just have to finish stitching on the seed stitch borders surrounding the blanket and it's done. I run screaming from finish work.

I thought I would include a couple pictured of Emma in the cat bed. We purchased the largest heated bed we could thinking the girls might share. We find Emma in the bed as often as the cat. They have a nice view of the bird feeders from the bed and some nice sunlight. Pretty sweet spot.

This is how she curls - all her feet together in a pile of cuteness. She is giving me the "What? What now? I just want to nap!" look.  Love my fur-babies.

Landmarks and Goals

It's Saturday morning and that means it's Weight In day! Today I hit a goal that I have been dreaming of for literally years. When I weighed in on my Wii it told me I was Overweight rather than Obese! I have never had it tell me I was anything other than Obese! Wahoo! I had hoped my little Mii figure would shrink a little in size, but it doesn't look like it. I am pretty sure I just barely crossed the line - but I will take it!

This week I lost -1.1 lbs, my Weight Watchers weight loss is -16.5 lbs, and my total weight loss is -31.5 lbs.

With the hitting of this goal and turning the big Four-Oh a week from today, I find my thoughts are turning to the significance of numbers and goals quite a bit. I told my husband that I wanted to hit 40 like a ton of bricks and not have 40 hit me like a ton of bricks. And I am very pleased with where I am in my health quest and am definitely feeling stronger and more in control of my life than I have previously. I know that the day I turn 40 I will really only be one day older than I was on the day I was 39, but I can't help thinking about the importance that is placed on a number or a date. I think because I am learning on a daily basis that you can erode negative habits just like you can erode positive ones, I am seeing the significance of every single day and how it can really impact your life to work towards something a little at a time but consistently. So I have to wonder, should I place so much weight on a number? My head tells me to celebrate a landmark, do a small victory dance, glance down the hill so I can see how far I have some, and then got back to climbing my mountain.

As for turning 40? It sure beats NOT turning 40!

So as a birthday present to myself I am off on vacation for the next week. I started doing this a couple years back after an unfortunate Birthday spent at work and having to scoop a customers vomit out of the sink in our public restroom. Yeah. Awesome. I vowed I would do my best to NOT have to work on my Birthday again, and so far I have been pretty lucky.

I am already thinking ahead and wondering how I will do on my health quest this week. A little voice in my head, the very one I keep stomping on with my workout sneakers, keeps telling me you only turn 40 once. You should have a slice of birthday cake when you turn 40! You should celebrate your weight loss and put on a fancy dress and go out to eat! Hu. Where does that voice come from? I cannot deny the importance that food has on a celebration. And after my Birthday is Thanksgiving and then on to Christmas. And the family will praise you for getting healthy in the same breath that they cram food down your throat. So I think I will be thinking about this a lot over the next month or two.

In other news, I figured out how to get my WIPS progress meters on my blog - so I have those staring at me now. I really need to get some of those cranked out and over with. My first tread-mill afghan has so little left to do! I would love to have that one completed before I finish knitting the squares for the second one. (And I am getting close so I really need to move my butt here!)

Last night I started my second mitt on my set of Wine about Winter Mitts (free pattern Easy Half Mitten 106 on Ravelry) and because I started it late at night when I was tired I messed up the ribbing and ended up frogging it out.Will start over again when I am NOT exhausted. Better success ratio.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Saturday Mornings are Good Mornings

My trusty work-out sneakers. I am going to DESTROY you!

It's Saturday morning - So it's Weight in day. I actually LOVE Saturday mornings. Not just because I don't have to work - that is just a Du! But I love everything else too. The last two Fridays I have fallen asleep well before 9:00pm. This morning I slept until just past 7:00 - so I really got some good rest. I get up and let the dog out and feed her. Then I can sit at my computer and sip on a cup of coffee and wake up s l o w l y. How lovely to not rushrushrush. Then when I am ready I head over to my Wii Fit and weight in.

This week I had my biggest loss - 2.7 lbs. (-13 on WW and -28 from my heaviest). I found this surprising since last Sunday I splurged and ate a calorie & fat laden extravaganza from our local Mexican Restaurant. Re-fried beans and cheese galore. It was amazing and I have no regrets whatsoever about eating it. But I thought it would slow my weight loss this week. Apparently not. Good lesson learned. One meal does not a fat-ass make. Flipping that coin around, I am learning patience and persistence is key in lifestyle change. I am still delighting in how much and the variety I can eat. I have ice cream frequently - It's just not a pint of Ben & Jerry's anymore - now it's a Skinny Cow drumstick - which are VERY good btw. Love them.

My increased exercise has been doing me good. I feel like my body is pulling in and I kind of feel like I have a little of the ol' Jenny swagger back. Not quite up to Old Spice Guy on a horse level of Swagger - but I am slowly getting my mojo back.

One of the joys of this journey and this steady slow drop in weight is that every day when I pull something out of my closet to wear I get the joy of it slipping on and instead of trying to find something I can fit into. To wear clothing that I could never really fit into and have it kind of hang on me now is soooooooo gratifying. Yesterday I wore a blouse that I had avoided for some time. I would have to wear a tank or tight tee under it and then button one or two buttons rather strategically to hide bulges. Yesterday it buttoned top to bottom and there was much room to spare! I actually had the thought that I should wear a tank under it because it is a little too big and gaps open. Oh yeah! I will take that my friends!

This next week:
I feel like I am pretty on track for my goals. I want to continue with my exercise routine and always always always drink more water. (Why is this so hard?)